It didn’t dawn on me until I saw the Nissan Leaf in person, but car manufacturers are taking a lot of liberties with headlight design this year. This Toyota Prius C concept demonstrates the trend perfectly. At first you may believe the car has no headlights until you look up and see its peninsula of a hood floating between two hooked, bulbous headlights. This trend is most apparent in electric and fuel efficient cars, which have been feeling the need to be different to stand out. And thanks to their new types of motors and experimenting with where to put batteries and the engine, we’re seeing a greater range of possibilities than we have with traditional combustion engines, which have a form that is, more or less, set.
The Prius C is smaller and lighter than the current Prius, which should help it achieve greater fuel economy than current models. This car should hit dealerships in the first half of 2012.
